


Let's Snuggle Forever

by ZZ_Chikorita



Series: Jolly Rogers [22]
Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Main Video Game Series), Pocket Monsters: Sun & Moon | Pokemon Sun & Moon Versions, Pocket Monsters: Ultra Sun & Ultra Moon | Pokemon Ultra Sun & Ultra Moon Versions
Genre: Backstory, Child Abuse, Childhood Friends, Childhood Memories, Childhood Sweethearts, Childhood Trauma, Concussions, Flashbacks, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Homophobia, Hurt/Comfort, Identity Issues, Implied/Referenced Homophobia, Innocence, M/M, Post-Concussion Syndrome, Sexual Identity
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-14
Updated: 2020-05-14
Packaged: 2021-03-02 21:54:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,127
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24173923
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ZZ_Chikorita/pseuds/ZZ_Chikorita
Summary: *Ball park frank vendor voice*Cheese! Get ya cheese here! Only the cheesiest! We got the cheesiest, cheese covered flash backs in town! Step right up, and get ya cheese!
Relationships: Guzma & Kukui-hakase | Professor Kukui, Guzma/Kukui-hakase | Professor Kukui
Series: Jolly Rogers [22]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1680463
Comments: 9
Kudos: 38





	Let's Snuggle Forever

**Author's Note:**

> Ch. 22

_***Knock knock*** _

The door of the small Iki Town cottage opened. The young boy in the doorway was yawning and rubbing his eyes. His dark hair was loose and hanging disorderly around his face. He was also wearing a t shirt that was way too big for him.

"Alola *yawn* Guzma, howzit? Is everything alright? It's almost midnight-"

The visitor turned his face revealing a swollen black eye hiding behind his white bangs. 

"He locked me out the house... can I stay here tonight?"

"Of course! Get in here!" Kukui yawned, grabbing the boy's hand (the one not in a sling), and pulling him into the house.

As he relocked the door behind them, Guzma asked, "Ya sure your parents don't mind?"

"Doesn't matter," he answered while stretching his arms up over his head, "Mom's still at the lab and Dad's not back for another month."

His parents are researchers who teach university classes in Unova part of the year. One teaches the first semester and the other teaches the second. Unfortunately, their busy schedules mean that Kukui ends up alone and fending for himself at the house most of the time.

Guzma sat down on the couch and his friend shortly followed, handing him a bag of frozen peas he had got from the freezer. He wrapped it in a clean dish rag.

"Mahalo." 

He lifted his bangs and carefully placed it against his shiner, hissing just a little bit on contact.

"Where's Wimpod?"

"Still at the house... I didn't exactly have a chance to grab him before..."

His voice trailed off. Kukui didn't feel like pushing the subject. At least not yet.

"How's ya arm been?" the dark haired boy asked with a yawn.

"It's fine. I mean, it's only been a few days, but it's really starting to feel better. The swelling's gone down a lot too," he responded; he glanced at his friend who had pushed up his glasses and was rubbing his eyes again, "Hey, you ok? Ya look exhausted."

"It's nothing," the boy said, replacing his glasses with a smile, "just haven't slept well the past couple days is all..."

Guzma frowned at him and raised his eyebrow.

Noticing this, Kukui elbowed him gently and said, "Don't worry about me. We need to talk about you. Are ya gonna tell me about what happened?"

Guzma looked at the ground and fidgeted with the hem of his shirt.

"You know what D.J. said. Ya won't feel better 'till ya talk about it"-he scooted closer to the pale boy-"Now, I might not be as pretty as she is but I think I'm a still a _pretty_ good listener."

"No, you're way prettier," he mumbled.

"What was that?" the boy teased, putting a hand to his ear.

Guzma turned bright red and tried to hide his face behind the makeshift ice pack.  
He didn't mean to say that out loud...

"C'mon Guzma! Tell me what happened!" he begged.

Now, he was hugging Guzma's good arm and resting his face on his shoulder, looking up at him with wide, sad eyes like a lillipup.

He sighed.

"If I tell ya, you're not gonna like it..."

"Of course I'm not gonna like it! I'd much prefer my friend _not_ get hurt and locked out of his own house, but that's not the point of this."

He pursed his lips and looked sternly up at his friend with a furrowed brow. 

Guzma had to hold in a chuckle. Arceus! Even when he's mad, he looks so freaking adorable!

After a moment to collect his thoughts, and to take a few deep breaths, he finally confided, "My dad doesn't want me to hang out with you no more..."

"W-what?" Kukui asked, letting go of his friend, "But why?!"

"He says you're a bad influence... says I'm gonna end up like my 'good for nothing' kapunakāne..."

"That's Tauros shit!" he spat, jumping up.

Guzma blushed, taken aback by his, usually docile, friend's sudden use of harsh language.

Kukui stood there with his fists clenched and his teeth gritted. Then he looked back at his injured friend and recomposed himself.

"S-sorry... you can continue whenever you're ready," he said sitting back down.

Guzma leaned back and looked up at the ceiling.

"He said that the past few days I've been looking... 'too happy' for a kid with a broken arm... said I shouldn't be hanging 'round you... said it's bad enough I'm a Po, he wouldn't stand havin' no māhū for a son..."

What little bit of color was in Guzma's face started to drain out.

"So... today, when he says to me 'ya gonna stop bein' friends with that little queer'?" Guzma gulped, "I said _no_."

"Y-you-?"

"And he slapped me."

He reflexively put his hand up to his cheek as the memory of the sharp pain came rushing back.

"So then he said," Guzma continued, "that if I wanna use my mouth to talk back I must not need it to eat no more."

Kukui gaped at him in astonishment. His dark eyes held both worry and woe for his dear friend. 

"So I says to him... I'm not hungry anyways..."

Kukui put his hands over his mouth in genuine shock and disbelief.

"So he gets his club and puts it under my chin,"-it was becoming harder for Guzma to speak now-"and he said if you wanna be like ya grandad so bad, why don't I just go ahead and crack open that thick skull and send ya straight to hell... right by his side..."

"Guzma... no..." 

Kukui's eyes were now just as watery as his friend's.

"And I told him... to do his worst... because I know what hell is... having him as a father is hell!"

The tears burned as they welled up and flowed out of the young boy's swollen eye. 

Silent, shaky tears also streamed downed Kukui's face as he asked softly, "And then?"

"And then," he began, putting a hand on his throbbing head, "I... I can't remember... I woke up and I was outside..."

Suddenly his stomach began to churn. He swiftly jumped up and ran to the bathroom.

Kukui followed and found him slumped over the bowl. As he kneeled down, he noticed dark bruising through the white hair on the back of his friend's head. 

"Did you throw up?" he asked, placing a gentle hand on his shoulder.

"Well... I would of," he said with a morose chuckle, "if I had any food in me to throw up in the first place."

Kukui scowled but didn't say anything more except, "C'mon, let's get you into bed."

He lent the pale boy his shoulder and led him into the bedroom. He helped him lay down and then pulled the waste bin over from the other end of his room, just in case Guzma feels sick again.

"I'll be right back," he murmured into his friend's ear.

Guzma, without any energy to argue, nodded and laid there gripping at his hair.  
Why does his head hurt so much?!

He felt like the room was spinning; something wasn't right. He admits he had a hard time making his way over here. What little food he did have in his stomach, he had already vomited on the side of the road. Also, at one point he almost couldn't remember which way to turn to get to Iki Town, even though he's walked that path hundreds of times before.

He could hear his friend talking in the other room. He really hopes he's not calling the police...

A few minutes later (although it seemed like an hour to the miserable child), Kukui came back in the room. In his arms he had the ice pack, a glass of water, and something in his closed fist. 

He helped his friend sit up and then dropped two white pills into his palm.

"Take those," he said, handing him the water.

While Guzma swallowed them, Kukui continued, "I called D.J."

"Why- _ow_ -why'd ya bother her. It's late."

"She told us we can call anytime," he reminded him, "and I had too. I needed to tell her about your symptoms."

"Symptoms? Symptoms of what?- _OW_ ," he asked still grasping at his head.

"Wouldya just listen! She says ya probably got a concussion. And also that you should try to hold some ice on the lump on the back of ya head. Thirty minutes on n' off. Same with ya eye."

"Lump? I don't have anything- _OUCH_!"

He reached up to the back of his head and immediately realized his friend was right. Maybe he hit the floor after his dad knocked him out.

Guzma tried twisting his good arm to hold the ice pack against his bruised skull, but it was an uncomfortable angle and his arm immediately started to fall asleep.

Seeing his discomfort, the boy with dark hair crawled up on the bed and took the ice pack. He then reached around and held it for him. Their faces were less than a foot away from each other.  
It really wasn't that awkward considering that's how they sit whenever they touch their foreheads together (something they've done together for years), but Guzma still felt a little embarrassed. 

He looked away.

Kukui smiled and tried to brush Guzma's sweat/tear soaked bangs away from his eyes, but they kept on falling back into place.

"You need a haircut," the boy teased.

"Haircuts are expensive. Besides, you're one to talk," he shot back with a smirk while twirling a lock of his friend's long, coal-black hair around his finger.

They both giggled at each other.

Kukui set the ice pack down for a moment and took off his glasses. He slid them onto his confused friend's face.

"Kukui! Now I can't see!" he chuckled as he squinted through the blurry lenses not meant for his eyes.

Then the boy pushed them up onto the top of Guzma's head, taking with it his bangs and holding them into place.

"There," he said picking the ice pack up and replacing it on the back of Guzma's head, "if I'm gonna sit here and hold this, I might as well get to look at ya cute face."

"Cute?...right," scoffed the boy in attempt to hide his embarrassment, "I look like I've got a gastly embedded in my face! Not to mention you can't see nothin' without ya glasses on..."

He glanced up to see the boy's dark eyes gazing adoringly at him from behind half-closed russet-brown eyelids.

"Silly lolo," he murmured gently, "I don't need no glasses to see how lovely you are... or to see how much I love you..."

He grabbed the dark-eyed boy by the front of his shirt and pulled him close. Their lips met and that indescribable feeling of happiness in blissful innocence washed over him just as it did before in the jungle. 

For a brief moment, the white haired boy swore all of his pain had melted away.

After what simultaneously felt like a fleeting second and a thousand lifetimes, he let go of the front of Kukui's shirt and the two pulled away from one another. 

Then Guzma let out a breathless laugh.

Kukui's face was red!  
_**Red**_ red!  
He didn't even know that was possible! He has such naturally warm, rich undertones to his tanned skin, it usually just blends in!

The dark haired boy quickly grabbed a pillow from behind him and covered his face with it.

"Hey no fair! You purposely make me blush all the time! You better let me enjoy this!" he guffawed while trying to grab the pillow.

Kukui 'struggled' a bit but eventually let the pillow fall down between them as he intertwined his dark fingers with his friend's pale ones.  
They both leaned forward and rested their foreheads together while giggling. They stayed like that for the remainder of the thirty minutes, only breaking the silence to murmur that the other is a dummy or, no, the other one is the dummy, etc.

After that, Kukui handed him the ice back so he could hold it against his own eye. They laid down on the bed facing each other. 

Guzma's head wasn't hurting as bad now. Maybe it was the medicine, maybe it was the ice, maybe it was just because he was so relaxed now... Whatever it was, he was relieved to rest his weary eyes.

"Guzma..."

Kukui spoke more softly and timidly than he has ever heard him before.

When he opened his eyes, his friend's dark eyes, that were usually so full of life and sparkling like obsidian gems, were clouded over. Occasionally, a tear would escape and drip down the side of his face.

"I... I don't want to be the reason you get hurt... h-he could've k-killed you..."

"My dad is gonna beat me no matter what I do," he said, setting the ice down and brushing a lock of hair out of the boy's face, "It's not your fault K.K.-"

"Yes it is!" he snapped and turned over to face away from his friend, "If I just kept my stupid feelings to myself... you have enough problems... but I had to go and be selfish..." 

He began weeping softly into his pillow.

Guzma looked down and clutched his hand to his chest. He didn't know what to say.

"What if he's right..." whimpered the boy, "What if it's my fault you're like _this_! That you're... like... me..."

Guzma could see him wipe the tears from his face. 

"Maybe you're suppose to be normal... and then I came and screwed it all up-"

Guzma shoved his arm under his friend, wrapping it around his chest.

He buried his face in his friend's black hair.

"What type would ya be if you was a pokémon?"

Kukui was caught off guard by the seemingly random question.

"W-what?"

"What type would ya be if you was a pokémon?" he repeated more slowly while adding, "My mom asked me that and said that even human ancestors had types if you look back far enough."

"I... I dunno... I'd have to think about it..." he mumbled.

"Would it be a Normal type?"

He didn't answer, so Guzma continued, "That'd be boring, wouldn't it? I mean... I'm sure it'd be perfect for some people but... I dunno, I think I'd rather be a Bug type."

"Of course you would..."

Guzma reached up and pinched his cheek, causing them to both snicker. 

"But the thing is... my mom says that there's no Normal/Bug types, and she asked if I was ok with that. So I says of course. There's way cooler duel types than that! Just the other day, I read a book that said they discovered a new species in another region that's Ice and Bug. Can ya believe that? An Ice/Bug type! How cool is that?!"

Kukui chuckled.

"I think..." the boy continued, nuzzling further into his friend's thick hair, "whatever type you are, it doesn't matter to me. I've loved you for a long time, Kukui. You are my brother... you are my ohana...  
And no matter what happens, you'll always be my hoalola."1

The boy finally turned back over. He was smiling but his eyes were starting to water again.

"No! No crying, Brother!" Guzma teased, his own voice cracking while wrapping his arm tighter around the thin boy, "I'm t-trying to m-make you feel _better_ y-you jerk."

They both half laughed, half wept in each other's embrace. 

After a minute, Kukui grabbed the ice pack and put it back on his friend's eye.  
He leaned over and kissed him on the forehead.

"Well... now what?" he finally asked, "I'm still afraid of what'll happen to you if ya dad gets mad like that again..."

Guzma sighed and played with the ends of his friend's hair a bit.

"I guess, we could just pretend... that things are like they were before... just be a couple of close friends... boys that don't... ya know... kiss each other..."

Kukui turned his head into the pillow and groaned, making Guzma laugh.

"It's not like we won't see each other or hang out," he reassured him, "We'll just... do it when we're at school or when my dad's not around..."

"That sucks," Kukui pouted, jutting out his bottom lip, "And then what...? We just do that forever and pretend like I don't want to kiss you every second of every minute of every hour of every-?"

"Shoosh!" Guzma said, chuckling, "No not forever... just until..."

His voice trailed off as he thought about it. Then his eyes (or eye, rather) popped open, and he pulled his arm out from underneath his friend. 

Now he was straddling the dark haired boy, his pale hand resting on his russet colored cheek.

"The trials! The trials Kukui!"

The dark eyed boy looked confused; his brain wasn't quite processing what he was getting at.

"Our island trials!  
In two years, we'll be ten and we get to go out on our island trials!  
We'll get to be true rivals and go on our adventure together to all the islands and it won't matter what my stupid makuakāne thinks because we'll be on our own!"

He was bouncing up and down excitedly, making the bed jounce and the springs creak. Kukui was covering his face out of embarrassment again, but giggling all the while.

Guzma calmed himself down and climbed off the giggly boy.

"So," Kukui began, sitting up and running his fingers through his hair, "are you saying that, when we leave for our trials, then I can kiss you again?"

"I mean..." he muttered, rubbing the back of his neck, "as long as you still want to..."

Suddenly, he got dizzy again and had to lay back down. Kukui pulled the blanket up from the foot of the bed and laid down next to him, covering them both.

"Rest now," he said, taking Guzma's hand between his own under the covers, "we can talk more tomorrow."

"Ok. Do you... want ya glasses back? I don't wanna break 'em by accident."

Kukui shook his head.

"They'll be fine," he whispered, squeezing his hand, "And I was serious when I said you look really cute like this. It's a good look on you..."

Guzma tugged him closer and they put their foreheads together.

"What? I'm suppose to wear glasses all the time _just_ so I can use them as a head band?" he simpered, "I don't even need glasses, ya lolo."

"You could wear sunglasses," he suggested coyly.

Guzma snorted and squeezed his friend's hand.

"I'll think about it..."

They closed their eyes.

"Alola wau ia 'oe..."

"Alola wau ia 'oe."

**Author's Note:**

>  **Footnotes:**  
>  **1.** Ohana: As you may already know...ohana means family. And family means no one gets left behind...or forgotten.
> 
>  **Other Notes:**  
>  I'm not crying, YOU'RE crying!  
> Thank you for reading!  
> I hope you enjoyed this extremely cheesey, angsty, fluffy, flashback.  
> I love me sweet little sunshine boys <3
> 
> As you guys know, feedback, comments, and questions are always welcome and so so _so_ appreciated!!!  
>  **PSA:**  
>  If you suspect you have a concussion, you can take an analgesic like Tylenol (acetominophen) for the pain. Do NOT take any NSAIDS like ibuprofen (Advil) or aspirin as they may increase the risk of bleeding!  
> [In case anyone missed it, I wrote a short Epilogue to the last flashback sequence (Part 12). It gives a little explanation to why Kukui hasn't been sleeping well](https://zz-chikorita.tumblr.com/post/616117901911588864/pain-split-epilogue)
> 
> ~~~  
>  **Links:**  
> [Tumblr page for art & updates ](http://zz-chikorita.tumblr.com)  
> [Master list of terminology](https://zz-chikorita.tumblr.com/post/615394532986650624/master-list-of-terminology-jolly-rogers)  
> [HCs and Background Info](https://zz-chikorita.tumblr.com/post/615439164403597312/hcs-and-background-info-jolly-rogers)  
> [References and Resources](https://zz-chikorita.tumblr.com/post/615802247274708992/note-so-i-originally-made-this-post-just-to)


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